Students will examine the underlying concepts driving the adoption of mobile and gaming technologies in education. This course will offer opportunities to examine potential devices/apps/games, issues (e.g., supporting infrastructure, management, digital divide), resource selection, integration in curriculum, and potential venues for creating mobile and/or gaming content for educational use.
Be familiar with common terms, definitions and elements related to mobile learning and gaming environments.
Create assessment and evaluate methods/tools most suitable to the strengths and challenges of the specific environment.
Evidence to Support Outcome
I successfully collaborated with another OLTD student to create my first infographic! In my profession, I am often faced with the question of what is better in education, Chromebooks or iPads. Here is what we were able to create based on our research.
Reflection to Support Evidence
I chose this topic as it was something that I have always wondered myself. I am constantly struggling in my personal life with choices in technology and where to invest my hard earned dollars as do schools. To be very honest, through my research, I discovered many differences between Chromebook and the iPad but came to no definite conclusion as to where schools should invest. The two platforms are both fantastic and can serve very different purposes. If I needed to absolutely choose, I believe I would lean towards tablets in elementary school and Chromebooks in secondary.
Tablets, in my humble opinion, are viewed more as a toy than a computer. Even a small child knows how to turn them on and get to their favourite game so there is not much "training" involved if you are going to use them in your class for educational games. They are also extremely portable and have endless apps to choose from.
As for the Chromebook, as I stated earlier, it would be my choice for secondary. It is viewed as a tool in education that can be used for games but they are not the primary function. The feeling of a laptop with keyboard in front of you, is that it is time to put your nose to the grind and start to produce work. With the cloud now, there is less and less need to use the same computer each time you are working so much of that hassle has been eliminated. There is also less need to have the student plugged into the wall when the battery is low. They can simply grab another laptop off the cart.
Although I might be decided on what I would choose, I was also faced with the question of "does it really matter what I think"? Teachers in schools do have a voice when it comes to technology decisions but often, their opinion is overridden by the budget and the administration. I know it is a harsh reality but as a former teacher, I often felt this. If both can be used for the same purposes it is very likely that the decision will be to purchase the cheaper one. With technology moving as quickly as it is, the item that is chosen will very likely need replacing in a few years anyway. My prediction is that there will soon be a hybrid of the two that is durable, portable, and sports a low price tag. Education is a HUGE industry that people are willing to invest in so changes are likely to come.
Stay tuned...
OLTD 508 - Major Project - Inquiry Based Exploratory
OLTD Program Outcome Addressed
Be familiar with common terms, definitions and elements related to mobile learning and gaming environments.
Demonstrate basic competency with design and implementation within a variety of mobile learning and gaming environments.
Critically assess and evaluate resources for best practice in mobile learning and gaming environments.
Create assessment and evaluate methods/tools most suitable to the strengths and challenges of the specific environment.
Integration of current cognitive learning and educational gaming theory and examination of current research around best and emerging practices.
Evidence to Support Outcome
I participated in a group inquiry project on the use of mobile technology in helping to address emotional health issues of students. We created a toolkit for teachers that includes apps, books, videos, and research.
Reflection to Support Evidence
As we have been nearing the completion of the OLTD program, I have been searching to find a possible project to complete my masters. I have always had a passion for working with alternate education so that was the starting point for this assignment. I originally wanted to know if mobile technology has a negative effect or a positive effect on our youth of today. Many of the students that I have worked with in the past seemed to have gotten into trouble with the involvement of social media and/or gaming so I wanted to see if there were any studies done around the topic. I posted my thoughts on our G+ site to see if anyone wanted to join in on my journey. I got three takers and we started out by creating our guiding question. Our conversation led a bit away from my initial idea and we came up with this:
How can mobile technology be used to help teachers help their students through emotional health issues?
Throughout our research, we found a number of articles that were worth sharing so we pooled them together. In the process, we also came across a number of apps that could help students so we added them in too! What we came up with for our final project was a toolkit for teachers to use when faced with students with emotional health issues.
Throughout our research, we did not come our with a definitive answer to to our guiding question but we came out with a wealth of information that, when compiled together, can be used by teachers and can also possibly be used in my masters project (LUCKY ME!)
Use of mobile technology with mental health was nothing I ever considered prior to this project. In looking through all of these resources, I really believe that there are tons of benefits for not only teens but for all of us with the use of mobile technologies. The internet has opened so many doors for help and recovery, I can not see any reason that we would not encourage teens to use them to their advantage.
Moving forward, I am looking forward to see how this project might progress into my final project. I learned so much about the types of tools and research that is out there, I am craving for more! It was a great start and the group I worked with was absolutely wonderful.
OLTD 508 - Game Based Learning
OLTD Program Outcome Addressed
Develop and design intentional learning activities suitable for the appropriate mobile learning and gaming environments and the learner i.e. incorporation of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles and selection of strategies and resources appropriate for environment, learners and learning outcomes
Critically assess and evaluate resources for best practice in mobile learning and gaming environments.
Create assessment and evaluate methods/tools most suitable to the strengths and challenges of the specific environment.
Evidence to Support Outcome
We were asked to watch this video and then describe three principles of learning that "good games" use to hook people on learning and why this appealed to me.
Reflection to Support Evidence
This was a very short assignment and was worth very little credit in the course but I wanted to share it here because it is one of the items that really resonated with me in this course. I AM a gamer. I love to play with friends or on my own. I even have a television in my living room that is solely dedicated to Zelda (we call it my Zelda TV). When I watched this video, and the way games hook you in, it changed how I play. After 30 years of games I did not think this was possible! Now when I am playing, I am thinking of Jim Gee and what principles are being used and how it is satisfying me and my roll in the game. I am so happy this video was shared with us :)